London – Page 2
London Plan policies and borough-specific rules on carbon, basements, fire safety, play space and more.
London articles – page 2
74 articlesOverheating in London schemes and the cooling hierarchy
Policy SI 4 treats active cooling as the sixth of six steps. A scheme with comfort cooling throughout and a compliant modelling report has satisfied the numbers and failed the policy.
Heritage and growth under London Plan Policy HC1
HC1 asks applicants to describe significance and show the asset can still be appreciated in its surroundings. The statutory duties sitting alongside it are stronger, and a finding of harm carries real weight.
Opportunity Area frameworks and the weight they carry
Applicants cite Opportunity Area Planning Frameworks as though they were policy. They sit outside the development plan, which changes both what they can deliver for a scheme and how objectors use them against it.
Basement development policy in London boroughs
The London Plan has no basement policy. Boroughs set their own limits on depth, footprint, garden coverage and soil depth, so check the one for your street first.
Mayoral Community Infrastructure Levy and the zones
The Mayoral levy is charged on top of the borough's, across three zones built from whole boroughs. Reliefs are lost if work starts before the claim is determined.
Housing quality standards: dual aspect and north facing
D6 asks you to avoid single aspect dwellings that face north, have three or more bedrooms or sit in high noise. That is a massing decision, not a room size one.
Referable applications and the Mayor's two stages
Referral to the Mayor adds a six week stage one and a 14 day stage two to a London programme, and gives the Mayor power to direct refusal or take the application over.
Deliveries, servicing and construction logistics in London
Policy T7 requires servicing and construction logistics plans. Both are usually written too late, which is why servicing bays end up where no vehicle can reach them.
London cycle parking standards and how to meet them
Cycle parking is a minimum standard in London, and applications fail on access rather than on quantum. How to count it, design the store and draw it.
Healthy Streets and transport assessment in London
Junction capacity is no longer the test. Policies T2 and T4 of the London Plan ask whether the streets around the site improve, and the assessment has to evidence that.
Agent of change in London: Policy D13 in practice
Policy D13 of the London Plan places the burden of mitigating noise on the new noise-sensitive development. It only works if the existing use puts evidence in front of the case officer.
Fire safety statements under London Plan Policy D12
D12 catches every major application in London. Gateway One catches buildings at 18m or seven storeys. Most schemes need one of them and some need both.
Water efficiency standards for new homes in London
New homes in London have to reach 105 litres per person per day of mains water, which the fittings approach in Approved Document G cannot deliver. Here is how the calculation, the evidence and the condition fit together.
Small sites in London and the policy presumption
The small sites presumption only operates where the scheme matches the listed development types and meets the design standards. What qualifies, what gets refused, and the documents a small London application needs.
Build to rent in London and the 15 year covenant
Policy H11 of the London Plan treats build to rent as a package, not a tenure label. The criteria, the covenant and clawback drafting, discounted market rent, and how the viability appraisal differs.
The fast track route for affordable housing in London
The London Plan threshold approach lets schemes at 35 per cent affordable housing, or 50 per cent on public and industrial land, avoid a viability assessment and review mechanisms. The conditions, and where fast track claims fail.
Industrial capacity in London: measuring no net loss
A London scheme can add industrial floorspace and still lose capacity once clear height, yard depth, vehicle access and permitted hours are counted. Here is how to measure and evidence all five.
Daylight and sunlight in a dense London context
BRE 209 targets were derived from suburban layouts. On a dense London site you need alternative targets with a stated derivation, full room-by-room results and an options appraisal that shows the massing was tested.
Play space in London: child yield and the area target
London expects at least 10 square metres of playable space per child, with the child population derived from the unit mix. The distance thresholds decide the layout.
What a Healthy Streets assessment has to cover
Policy T2 of the London Plan asks applicants to show how a scheme supports the ten Healthy Streets indicators. Done early, the assessment changes the layout rather than justifying it.
Air quality neutral and air quality positive in London
Air quality neutral is a benchmark calculation for building and transport emissions. Air quality positive is a design argument about layout, uses and movement. London schemes often need both.
Urban greening and net gain on the same London site
A London major scheme has to score an urban greening factor and show a 10 per cent biodiversity uplift. The two are measured differently, and a planting plan tuned to one can fail the other.
Fire safety evidence on a London planning application
A six-storey London block needs fire safety evidence even though the national trigger is not met. Access, water supply and evacuation lifts are the planning-critical parts.
Tall buildings in London: definition, location and impacts
Whether a building is tall is a borough decision, and whether the location is identified in the development plan is the gate the policy puts first.
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